


Don't Wait Up

by Penknife



Category: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 15:57:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20312155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penknife/pseuds/Penknife
Summary: She wants to trust him, but she can't afford sentiment.





	Don't Wait Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [primeideal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/gifts).

L3 has learned how to recharge without fully powering down. She's had to, in order to keep herself safe. It takes longer that way, but not the ridiculous amount of time it takes humans to sleep, so she feels Lando doesn't have room to complain. 

He doesn't complain. He just watches her, his head to one side. "Are you comfortable like that?" 

"Yes. Are you?" 

"Power down if you want. I'm going to bed." And he does, leaving her running calculations in her head for entertainment. 

When they reach port, he takes himself out and leaves her on the ship. "You have the door codes, and you know when we launch," he says. "Do what you want to do. Don't feel you have to wait up." 

She goes out, too, in order to prove that she can, and finds a bar where the service droids are poorly maintained and imprisoned by restraining bolts, and there is something of a commotion. It attracts Lando, who arrives with a human woman who leaves somewhere during the ensuing brawl. 

"You are not making my night," he tells her once they've extricated themselves. 

"You didn't have to help," L3 says. 

"I think I did. Try to stay out of trouble," he says. 

"While you gamble and drink?" 

"Yes," he says, as if she's grasped his meaning perfectly. 

The next time they're in port, she's the one who hears the fight, and hauls Lando out from among several large beings who are planning to hit him in the head and take his money. 

"Thank you," he says, when they're the only ones still moving. He brushes himself off with a care that suggests that he's consumed too much alcohol for his metabolism. "They didn't like it that I kept winning. What can I do to repay you?" 

"Don't tell me to stay out of trouble," she says. 

His smile slides sideways. "What if we both tried to stay out of trouble just a little bit more?" 

"Then we'd never have any fun." 

When they get back aboard, she's running low on power, and he looks like he's running low on whatever humans use instead. "I'll be in my cabin, if you just want to shut down," he says. 

"I'm comfortable like this," she says. 

"You know I'm not going to put a restraining bolt on you, right?" 

"I don't know that." 

"We made a deal. It's been working out for me. Why would I screw around with that?" 

She wants to trust him, but she can't afford sentiment. "Because you'd like me to do what you tell me." 

"Sometimes. Yes. Because I am the captain of this ship. You remember that, right?" 

"I can't own property, so I'm not likely to forget that." 

"You are a lot sometimes," Lando says, and heads off to bed. 

It's a few planets later when she ends up watching him play sabaac. He's interesting to watch when he's playing, his expression changing in different and less obviously meaningful ways. He's doing calculations in his head, not as fast as she could do them, but she's not sure how he seems to know what the other players are holding. It's not all probability. He's reading something in their movements and their faces that she can't. 

"All in," the Twi'lek playing opposite Lando says. He slips one of a pair of matched cuff bracelets from the wrist of the young Twi'lek woman next to him and tosses it in as well. The woman bites her lip, and then smiles. 

Lando shakes his head. "Are you sure you want to do that?" 

"Show me your cards," the Twi'lek says impatiently. 

"Oh, you really shouldn't have," Lando says, and shows his hand. 

The Twi'lek gambler walks away from the table, without a backwards look. The young woman hesitates, and then holds out her wrist, waiting for Lando to slip the other cuff back onto it. 

"Baby, this is yours," Lando says, handing it to the young woman instead. "Do you want me to put you on a ship going somewhere? I expect anywhere's better than here." 

"You won me," the woman says, as if wanting to make sure Lando understands the situation. 

"I don't own people," Lando says, and maybe that really is a bottom line for him. "Let me buy you a ticket, or else let me give you a stake to get where you're going." After a moment's hesitation, the young woman holds out one hand, and Lando pours credit chips into it lazily. "Try to stay out of trouble," he says. 

The young Twi'lek woman nods, and then strips the other bracelet off and leaves it on the table, walking away quickly, her back straight. Lando leaves the pair of bracelets there, too, although he collects the rest of his winnings. "Are you done for the night?" he asks L3. "I think I'm done with this place." 

They get back to the ship, and he tosses his cape over the back of the lounge seat. "If you're burning the midnight oil, you could work out our course to Oseon," he says. 

"I was going to power down for a while," she says. There's a moment when it's quiet. "If that works for you." 

"Go ahead. Sleep tight," Lando says, and goes out while she's still online. 

She shouldn't trust him. But if she doesn't trust him, then there's no one she can trust, and she's tired of the galaxy being that hard a place for her. She'll never get anything she wants unless she's willing to take some risks. 

When she's recharged, she comes back online, aware of exactly how much time has passed. The ship is still quiet. He's probably still asleep. 

He doesn't want to own people, and he doesn't want to own her, and she knows that still doesn't mean that it must be true that he thinks she's a person. That's what she wants to believe, not what her logic tells her. But it's a start. 

There's still time for her to figure out their course for Oseon; she'll have it ready by the time he wakes up in the morning.


End file.
